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Rant: Great British Menu 2009 - The Final Results

Yes, it's finally here - the Results of the Great British Menu 2009. We voted; the judges voted; together we may have created an unholy mishmash of flavours, but dammit if we don't love the chefs that made them.

All the finalists have gathered at the Imperial War Museum to find out if they will be feeding servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan at a special banquet at RAF Halton House.

Jennie Bond makes all manner of totally inappropriate military-related metaphors ("The chefs' fight has reached the culmination of their campaign"; "Who'll be in the front line and who has fallen by the wayside?") - I mean, the soldiers have actually been out there fighting for their lives; I bet the worst these chefs will have seen is a hot oil burn.

Then Oliver Peyton, Prue Leith and Matthew Fort pat each other on the back for having eaten another 96 gourmet meals, and Oliver remarks "I think we've seen the best cooking ever, more than in previous competitions". LIES! In the past they've given Glynn Purnell, Sat Bains and Jason Atherton perfect scores - who got that this time around, eh, eh? NO-ONE!

Anyway, the votes are in and here are the top three and the winner for each course:

Kenny Atkinson with Salad of Aberdeen Angus Beef, Carrots, Horseradish and Shetland Black Potatoes - a shock overturning of the judges' 1st choice of James Sommerin, who is sweet enough to take it really well; guess people really don't like ravioli.

Many, many congratulations to Kenny, Glynn, Nigel and Shaun! Of course, I adore Glynn anyway, Nigel is the Daddy, and Shaun really deserved a break, but I'm especially chuffed newbie Kenny won something as most of his dishes were really strong (and his starter and dessert were incredible looking).Commiserations to the rest of the chefs (don't give up Tom and Danny!), but I'm sure they'll be drafted in to help on the big day (ooh, more army puns!)

Anyway, it's been emotional.

Thank you and good night.

All screencaps copyright BBC/Optomen, but created and edited by me - if you want to use them, please ask first and credit me - thanks :)

As for the judges saying "it's the best ever cooking", they do have a PR job to do and understandably wouldn't to effectively say to the troops "unlucky - not as good as last year, but it will still be good enough for you!" - and also they do want to be judges next year, lining up for another 96 gourmet meals!